


To the Letter

by ArtemisRae



Series: Alphabet Challenge [47]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-22
Updated: 2010-08-22
Packaged: 2017-10-21 15:30:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/226735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtemisRae/pseuds/ArtemisRae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Toph obeys directions to the letter, and yet Zuko is still asked to speak to her. It goes about as well as you'd imagine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To the Letter

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a second round of Alphabet Challenge at my LJ, where I'm given a prompt for every letter of the alphabet. My prompt for this fic was "unorthodox"

* * *

  
_Unorthodox_  
-adjective  
1\. not conventional in belief, behavior, custom, etc  


* * *

Jie, his Keeper of the House, is the one who wakes him up that morning, and Zuko can’t even bring himself to be angry at being woken so rudely. Frankly, the woman knows his household better than he does, and has a much better idea of what makes it run. Zuko is glad to leave her to it; the way she talks, sometimes it seems more complicated than his position of Fire Lord.

“You have to talk to her.” Zuko blinks up at into the maid’s displeased face.

There is no question who “her” referred to - only a question about what, exactly, he has to talk to her about now. “Okay,” he sighs. “Why?”

“It is _summer solstice_!” the Keeper hisses. “It is time for celebrating! And _bathing_!”

“Toph won’t take a bath?” Zuko asks groggily, sitting up in bed and blinking as his eyes adjust.

“Oh, she took a bath alright.” With these words, the curtains that led to his patio and personal garden are yanked back. Once Zuko squints and blinks away the spots in front of his eyes, he sees what is affronting the household staff so.

His garden is now one gigantic mud pit. And there, lounging casually in the middle of it without a care in the world, is Toph Bei Fong.

He doen’t even bother with a dressing gown as he ambles outside to greet her. She must not be able to see his approach, though he notices her ears twitch once he gets close.

“Good morning,” Toph greets him cheerily, favoring him with a bright grin and a wave of her hand that flings mud everywhere.

“Jie says I have to talk to you,” Zuko informs her flatly.

Toph sighs in exasperation. “What does she want?!” she demands. “I’m bathing, exactly like she asked, and I took off all my clothes before I got in, so she can’t even throw her usual fit about how earthbending doesn’t get my good clothes clean like she _always_ does.”

“Um,” Zuko responds, his brain getting stuck somewhere around the mention of her clothes coming off. He’s never sure if it’s the fact that she’s blind or simply her natural personality, but Toph has never exactly been the biggest fan of modesty. It’s something that embarrasses and endears her to Zuko in equal parts; a little part of him is jealous that she can shrug off the iron-clad rules of her upbringing that easily.

“So you just go tell her that I am following her directions to the _letter_ ,” Toph insists, making a dismissive gesture with her hand and closing her eyes.

When Zuko merely stares at her with a blank look on his face, she raises an eyebrow. “Do we have a problem?”

Almost certainly. She’s going to track mud all through the palace, which will be a whole new hissy fit. Also, there’s all the damage to his garden, which will need replaced. Inexplicably, Zuko finds a smile curling across his face. “Nope. You just keep doing what you’re doing.”


End file.
